How does the customer service of yota compare with your expectations

Customer Expectations: How to Meet (and Exceed) Expectations

Post summary:

Do you remember the last time a business exceeded your expectations?

According to Acquia, 66% of customers cannot remember the the last time a brand exceeded their expectations!

Here’s the thing:

Customer expectations are difficult to meet.

The higher they are, the less likely you are to exceed them.

So, how do you meet and exceed customer expectations?

Confused about what customers really want? Do you want your business to be in that 8%?

3 ways to exceed expectations

We will now cover the 3 main areas where most companies go wrong and discuss how to exceed customer expectations and provide examples of good customer service and how to improve them.

1. Quality first, Speed second

We all like our issues to be resolved efficiently when contacting a company, but what makes us use them again and again? There is only one answer. The quality of the service!

According to RightNow’s Customer Experience Impact study, at 82% the top reason customers would stop using a business was rude and incompetent staff. This was 18% more than their issue not being resolved swiftly.

Despite this most businesses still use speed as their main measure of customer service quality. Europe’s biggest budget airline Ryanair plays a recorded message stating how they arrive on time more than any other airline in Europe whenever arriving on schedule.

Here is one example of how taking a little bit of extra time had a massive effect on one mans life.

Another great and heartwarming example is from Kerry Drake, who was flying with United Airlines on his way to see in his mother in her final hours. After his first flight was delayed he broke down but, when the stewards on board realized the reason, the captain was able to radio ahead and hold his connecting flight until he arrived. He managed to spend a few hours with his mother before she died.

Airlines rank each other on their ability to be on time, but this kind of story and the fact it was global news show that customers see quality of service above any other any other measure.

Advice: Remove time as a measure of quality and concentrate on getting your service right. Don’t ever make a customer feel rushed.

2. Connect with Your Customers

Now you have a little more time. What do you do with it?

In 2021, it’s no longer enough to be friendly and efficient in solving customer inquiries. You have to connect with them too.

Pearl Weaver, who is 89 years young, certainly does that. Not only is she an inspiration in working longevity, but also in how to connect with customers.

When anybody enters the Arby’s where she works, they are greeted to a booming smile, friendly welcome and shaking pom-poms.

Her manager said “If she is off for a week, people ask where she is”!

Just how many pensioners have you seen waving pom-poms working in fast food restaurants?

That is how you exceed customer expectations!

But how can you connect with customers when you communicate through email or web chat?

Here is a great example.

Jill, a representative for online men’s clothing store Jack Threads received an instant message from a man who had found a hole in a shirt he had bought from them. He had not worn the shirt yet as he was hoping to fit in it after losing some weight. Jill firstly congratulated the client on losing weight, before asking for more information to help him return the shirt.

The customer, Tony then went on to explain he was training for a marathon.

Why did this conversation also go viral? It seems very simple right? But with so many companies so fixated on solving customer queries. Many have actually forgotten to connect with them.

Advice: Ditch the script. Giving your employees more freedom makes them happier and more likely to connect with clients.

3. Go the Extra Mile

Think about the best customer experience you have ever had. I imagine it involved a company or representative doing far more than what was expected of them.

The team at Jimyz Automotives in Streetsboro, Ohio simply provide their clients with a handwritten thank you note.

This not only helps to build your reputation and attract business, it also keeps customers loyal. When this photo was posted online, one of the responses was “I used to live in Streetsboro and I know exactly who that is. He’s a good man, stay with him!”.

This kind of idea keeps regular customers loyal and makes your business the one they recommend to friends and family.

From time to time a customer will give you the opportunity to provide them with a really memorable service. Like our next example.

When a young Ritz customer left his beloved Joshie the Giraffe toy at the hotel, all his father could do was say that he had stayed on vacation a little longer. The father Chris Hurn emailed the Ritz to explain the situation. They responded by not only sending the beloved toy home, but by creating a photo booklet showing everything Joshie had done during his extra stay.

If a hotel had done that for your child, would you stay anywhere else?

Advice: Try to think of something memorable you can do for every customer. Also if you ever get an opportunity to do more, then do it.

Conclusion

Customer service today is not about telling people how great you are and giving figures to prove it. It’s about creating memorable experiences that do the talking for you.

All you need to remember is to:

Providing great customer service does not have to cost you the Earth either. Out of all the examples provided only one gift card was given. In fact, some companies who have excelled in customer service have even managed to remove their advertising departments entirely.

When you also consider 85% of clients would actually be willing to pay up to 25% more to get better service. Why would you be doing anything else?

How do you exceed customer expectations? Any tips you want to share?

5 strategies for managing customer expectations

As business owners, we all know there is a baseline expectation for high-quality customer service in today’s marketplace. For example, the Institute of Customer Service found 60 percent of consumers favor a balance of price and service and are unwilling to accept poor customer service in exchange for lower prices. However, the best way to exceed the norm and maintain happy clients in the long term is to manage their expectations from start to finish. Companies can set themselves up for success by utilizing the right B2B support software and employing these five powerful strategies for managing customer service expectations:

» Companies can maintain happy clients long-term by managing their expectations from start to finish.»

1. Openly discuss solutions
Businesses that have highly knowledgeable customer support teams should be well-versed in the solutions to every potential problem and be able to speak to those possibilities quickly. One important way businesses can manage customer service expectations is by openly discussing possible solutions to a problem with the client. By listing off possible resolutions, support teams empower their clients to understand the complexity of a particular problem and engage directly with its solution. Additionally, by painting a clear picture of possible results, service teams ensure customers don’t have unrealistic expectations of how simple or difficult the resolution will be.

2. Provide clear timelines
Glitches, errors, and bugs in B2B software can be irritating and costly to customers. However, clients will become more angry if they look forward to their problem being solved in a week, and instead wait a week and a half. Businesses can manage customer service expectations by clearly stating how long any particular task will take from the moment the client gets on a customer support call until the resolution is in progress. Teams should ensure customers are well-informed of not only how long a phone call will take, but how much time and work is required to get them a solution as quickly as possible.

4. Remain optimistic, but realistic
While optimism is an important part of a positive customer experience, representatives must also remain realistic about solutions. By understanding company policies, the complexities of certain problems and the workload of their team members, support experts can gauge how a particular ticket will be solved and the time investment that is required. While it can be nerve-wracking to tell a client a problem will take longer than expected to resolve, it is more important to be realistic than set expectations that can’t be met.

There are many ways businesses can optimize their customer experience strategies. However, the first step to delivering excellence is to manage expectations effectively from the get-go.

Customer expectations: 7 Types all exceptional researchers must understand

All companies want to ‘exceed customer expectations’, but do you really know what that means? Learn the facts below.

What are customer expectations?

Generally, customer expectations are a set of ideas about a product, service or a brand that a customer holds in their mind.

For example, customers that buy an Apple iPhone over another phone brand have a set of expectations about that product. For example, they expect to see that the Apple phone has a sliding lock function, a ‘slate-style’ that has few to no physical buttons, with ‘Face ID’ facial recognition as standard.

Customers want these expectations met in order for them to feel satisfied with the customer service and with their purchase. They’ll also have expectations that aren’t so easy to see.

Let’s explore how companies can deliver against these tangible and intangible expectations.

Why customers’ expectations are vital to business

This year, 60% of large organizations plan to increase the effort they put into improving their customer experience compared with the previous year. One survey found 65% of SMB respondents said that customer-centric agility has increased in importance as a result of COVID-19.

Find out how you can measure your customers’ satisfaction level: Customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys: examples, definition & template

How have customer expectations changed over time?

Customer expectations have been changing over time for a number of reasons:

Microsoft found that 54% of customers have higher expectations for customer service today compared to one year ago.

The demand for better customer experience is particularly strong with the new millennial generation of consumers, who are expecting even higher levels of customer service experiences. In the same study, a larger proportion, 66% for consumers were aged from 18 to 34 years old.

Because of this increased power of the consumer and an expanding market, it’s reported that 48% of consumers expect specialized treatment for being a good customer, according to research by Accenture.

Nowadays, all consumers have a smartphone or access to online services. The marketplace is online and companies are moving to omnichannel routes to sell products and services.

If a company invests in digital technology solutions, they have a competitive advantage over their rivals, as Companies that have embraced digital transformation are 26% more profitable.

If the last year with Covid-19 has taught us anything, it’s that our social, political and economic activities can change rapidly in response to emerging events.

Customer expectations will change and it’s up to brands to get a feel for their customers’ needs and expectations during these uncertain times.

How do customers form expectations?

If your direct competitor is providing a better customer care experience, the customer will expect you to at least match or exceed that experience. Because of this, 81% of companies view customer experience as a way to gain a competitive advantage.

If you fail to address this, the customer will look favorably on your competitor as they will be the better all-around experience provider in their mind.

It’s the same sad story: A customer has a problem and they’re passed around from department to department, waiting endlessly on the phone. By the time they get through to the right person, they’re frustrated. Turns out they “rang the wrong number” and now they’ve found themselves in another call queue…

Customers tell nine people on average about a positive brand experience versus telling 16 people about a negative one. If your customer has an emotionally-negative experience when they need help, this experience will continue with them. The next time they want to use you, they’ll remember the experience and might think twice. On the other hand.

What do customers expect from businesses today?

What are the common customer expectations that companies need to work on to provide an excellent customer experience (CX)?

Personalization

Look to personalize the experience throughout the customer journey, whether it’s pre, during or after purchase. This focuses the service experience around them.

This could happen when a customer service agent uses the customer’s name in conversation, or when the customer receives email discounts, tailored to what they usually, or might like to buy. It can occur as a service, like personalized shopping styling, or be built into the product itself, so it’s just right for them.

Not only does it help to direct customers to products and services that they like, making their customer buying journey easier; but it also improves sales. 80% of customers would be more likely to use an organization if they offer personalized experiences.

Quality customer service

Don’t let your customers feel underappreciated (said to be the top reason why customers switch brands) by making more effort to engage and learn more about your customer’s wants, feelings, desires and beliefs.

Be authentic and genuine in your interactions, and most importantly, be human. Empower your customer service agents to help the customer and make that their sole goal.

Quick resolution-time for complaints

Within social media, fast responses are the norm for a customer. Statista found that 18% of customers expected a response from a company’s social media within one hour. As all information is public facing, action or lack of action can be shared quickly, for better or worse.

Low-effort experiences

Customers don’t have a lot of time to spend figuring out how to purchase something using your system. They’ll say ‘no, thank you’ to the multi-step buying process and ‘hello’ to one-click buying and saving banking details for next time.

How can you make your customers’ lives easier? Give easy-to-understand instructions on how to use the platform, maybe in the form of a ‘start tour’ or a ‘get support’ button. Even after the purchase has been completed, you can give the customer extra support when using the product or service. Lastly, sending reminder emails ahead of time close to the customer’s service renewal date, or periodic emails to ask for feedback will be appreciated.

Track customer effort with a customer effort score (CES)

Up-to-date knowledge

Customers want to interact with people who can answer their questions quickly and correctly, to give them the information they need to make their buying decision. Microsoft found that almost one in three people (30%) say that speaking with a knowledgeable and friendly agent is the most important part of customer service.

In addition, giving customers knowledge tools to help themselves is highly recommended. Research by Steven Van Belleghem showed that 70% of customers expect a company’s website to include a self-service application. One report showed that 73% of customers wanted to be able to solve their own problems on their own.

Omni-channel availability

The customer wants to use the channels that they’re most comfortable with. Forrester found that 31% of customers reach out through Twitter, and almost a third of customers used SMS messaging to request assistance.

Easy-to-use platforms

Customers want an easy experience with your communication platforms. They want to feel smart using them, achieve their goal and leave without feeling stressed.

Complexity is not your friend if you’re trying to gain points with your customers. American Express found that 40% of customers dealt with complicated interactions, such as payment disputes, by preferring to talk to a real person over the phone.

If you want to ensure a smooth journey, or evaluate where your customer pain-points are, try out customer journey mapping.

Products and services that perform well and do what they’re meant to do

This customer expectation is the most basic: knowing that what they buy will perform the actions, and have the features and functions, as advertised.

When customers buy your product or service, they think they’re buying exactly what you sold to them. If that product or service breaks, it follows that they’ll expect you to fix it as part of the transaction you made.

Show integrity by doing what you say you will, and sticking to your word. Your marketing information and communications out to all your channels should say the same thing in a consistent manner.

If there are serious issues with the product or service, let your customers know, think about service responses to the issue and get working on a fix.

How to exceed customer expectations

Based on the core requirements above, here are the three ways to get you the information you need for meeting your customers’ expectations:

1. Know what your customers’ expectations are

It’s important to check in with customers so you can ask what their experience has been like and what their expectations are. This is useful information to help improve products and services, and improve the customer service knowledge about what the customers want. In short, know what your customers expectations are so you can take steps to meet those expectations.

2. Renew the focus on providing excellent customer service

Customer service agents need to be quick to help, easy to talk to and care about the customers that they serve. Help your customer service employees by reading our free Customer Service Playbook to see how you can improve your customer service.

Regular training on latest company news and product/service updates can also help employees remain knowledgeable, and support the customer quicker.

By making customer-centric thinking a part of your work culture, you can re-vitalize what customer service really means and make it central to the success of your teams. Rally up the executives and see how it can be included in the overall company strategy.

3. Measure how you’re doing against your customer expectations

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Change is necessary if you want to improve.

Measure the right metrics to help you understand your service experience and create an action plan. Measurement is not the goal here, improvement is. But by measuring these metrics, we can chart our success.

Continue your learning with our ebook: 16 Ways to Capitalize on Customer Insights

20 Powerful Customer Satisfaction Survey Questions

Customer satisfaction informs you about customer happiness. It tells how your customers are satisfied with your products, services, and capabilities. Along with product reviews and ratings, customer satisfaction helps you improve your services, develop your products, and make the overall experience with your site more user-friendly.

Here at Survicate, we are obsessed with customer satisfaction, and you should be too. After all, providing high-quality products, services, user experience, and customer care brings money to the bank.

How to check if your feeling of giving the best customer service checks out with reality? It’s simple! Start sending customer surveys frequently and asking the right customer satisfaction survey questions.

‍In this article, you will get 20 perfectly designed customer satisfaction survey question examples and ready-to-use free survey templates. Depending on your goals, we divided the questions into 4 groups of interest:

Alternatively, jump right in and try Survicate’s free plan that lets you play with all customer satisfaction survey templates, customize survey questions, and see how they work for your team!

Product Feedback Survey Question

Simply put, a product survey is a powerful way to discover what their customers think about your products or services.

‍Running surveys before launching a new product means you get to see what people expect. Product research cuts the risk of developing good-for-nothing features.

Plus, depending on the survey questions you include, it can help you create and design what you’re making.

You can also use product feedback surveys for existing products to see how users enjoy the experience. So they’re always helpful.

1. Which of the following words would you use to describe our product?

Why should you care how people would describe your product? Because it’s an important issue when your product gets described as ‘buggy’ instead of ‘life-saving.’

If you don’t want to give your clients any suggestions, you can use the open-ended variation of this customer survey question and ask «How would you describe our product?”.

Answers to any of those will show you how well you communicate your value proposition and product vision to users. If your goal is to provide them with the world’s most sophisticated graphics software and people describe it as ‘Paint with 1 cool feature,” it means that the communication is broken.

Hint: Check what are the most common positive words used to describe your product. If they are very frequent, it may indicate that this is what your customers are looking for in your product. You can use such words in your future marketing campaigns.

2. How well does our product meet your needs?

This is a broad product question nonetheless specific enough to provide actionable results. Offering a product or service that meets customer needs is a prerequisite to providing high customer satisfaction. If the product doesn’t meet the needs of users they are more likely to churn.

‍Hint: To make this customer feedback question even more actionable, ask the following two questions.

3. Which 3 features are the most valuable to you?

This question is vital for SaaS companies. Their products tend to offer dozens of features and most of the customers use only a handful of them.

Researching which ones are the most important and valuable to users will help you understand how customers interact with your product and what they really need.

Don’t be surprised when people say that the most important to them are features you consider secondary. We discovered exactly this with our exit intent survey – a simple feature that turned out to be a must-have for many customers.

4. What are the 3 most important features we’re missing?

Offering exactly what your customers need helps improve their retention. If your products don’t offer everything customers need, sooner or later they will find another provider.

The same goes for e-commerce – customers are more likely to return if you offer what they are searching for and want to buy.

Answers to this customer survey question will help you minimize risks associated with building a product roadmap or planning expanding inventory.

5. If you could change just one thing about our product, what would it be?

This is a variation of question 4. This time you require information on just one change your customers would like you to introduce.

This time you don’t consider any missing features. What you take into account is that your customers may have very specific needs regarding the products you already have.

As with the question above, the main purpose is to improve customer retention. Take into consideration all the propositions made by your customers.

Firstly, focus on the most frequent ones. be grateful for any feedback you may receive in that regard. To fail to act on that is a mistake that may cost you too much too soon.

6. What problem would you like to solve with our product?

This is a question that seeks information that usually cannot be gauged by analytics. Here you ask for the type of solution your customers search for.

This allows you to focus on the strongest features of your product and helps to prioritize any future improvements that could be made.

‍Hint: It’s great to ask this question even before finalizing the sale. It may be the case that your potential customers are looking for something different than their chosen product is.

If you have other products that would much better suit their needs, it’s great to navigate them towards them before it’s too late and they get disappointed with a product that was not designed for what they actually need.

7. How would you rate the value for the money of the product?

That is a very valid customer satisfaction survey question. First and foremost, you should use it while considering any changes to the pricing of your product or service.

If the feedback you receive proves that your customers think that your product is too expensive, you should definitely reconsider your plans to up your prices. Maybe you could reach your financial goals by introducing some sales or discounts instead.

‍Hint: It’s great to ask your customers these questions after they spend a little while with your product. It may be a follow-up after a finalized purchase, e.g. two weeks or one month after the sale.

Customer Effort Survey Questions

8. How easy is it to navigate our website?

This is a must-have question to use when there are any changes in the design of your website. What you may consider innovative, easy, and user-friendly, maybe not so much for your customers.

Take into consideration any feedback you receive. Unheard complaints from your users may result in their churn, so make sure they are happy with what they see and find on your website.

When it comes to new users or potential customers, it is also great to ask them this customer satisfaction survey question.

They look at your website with a fresh eye and may notice things from a totally different perspective. It is worth taking a look at their opinion on the matter.

9. Were you able to find the information you were looking for on our website?

It’s obvious you want your visitors to find the information they need as easily and as quickly as possible. The happier they are with the navigation of your website and the time they take to get the information they need, the higher the chance they will return and bring new customers with them.

‍Hint: If there is certain information that seems to be particularly hard to find for your visitors, better make sure it’s somewhere they will have quick access to. It may be worth a shot to add another section to the menu that would link directly to that subpage.

10. How much effort did you personally have to put forth to handle your request?

Customers’ need for support is the one thing that you should always take into consideration, whether it be with your website or the product itself. It’s not only beneficial for your customers to be able to fill their complaints and get support quickly.

There are also great advantages to your company. Quick actions to fix bugs and support your customers to enhance retention and make your workflow much smoother.

11. How did this effort compare to your expectations?

This is a satisfaction survey question that can give you a clear indication of what you are doing is a reflection of customers’ needs or not. If the effort your customers had to put in was greater than they expected, it should be food for thought for you.

It may be beneficial to reconsider the stages where the customers had any difficulties. Maybe some processes need simplification?

It’s possible that your customers expected your product or service to be much more difficult than it really is. If you managed to exceed your customers’ expectations, keep going, and keep moving forward!

‍Hint: Send this question, along with question number 10, in a follow-up survey after provided customer support. At the latest, it should happen a day or two from that date, to get a fresh insight into the quality of provided support.

12. How responsive have we been to your questions or concerns about our products?

This customer satisfaction survey question is wonderful at the check-out of any interaction with the customer that required providing customer support. This is a clear indicator of making sure you spend enough time supporting them to make them feel well taken care of.

13. To what extent do you agree with the following statement: The company made it easy for me to handle my issue.

This customer survey question is great because it encompasses a lot of issues at the same time. You can use it to monitor your customers’ overall experience with your website, your products, or any requests they may have.

Allow them to, first, give a specified rating and later, express their opinion in their own words. Any feedback you may receive in this case is very valuable, as it gives you the information on whether there are any hot spots in your workflow that require immediate action.

‍Hint: As with questions 10, 11, or even 12, this customer satisfaction survey should be sent to your customers very soon after providing the support. The fresh perspective can give you a clear indication of what you are doing right or wrong.

Feedback On Your Position Against Your Competition Survey Questions

14. Compared to our competitors, is our product quality better, worse, or about the same?

This is a wonderful satisfaction survey question: it’s straightforward and very measurable. It gives a very clear image of the quality of your products in comparison with your competition.

It may and should be followed by questions that will go into greater detail on your customers’ opinion, but it is a great starting point for taking any further actions.

‍Hint: Send such customer satisfaction survey somewhere between two weeks and one month from the purchase. Let your customers take some time with your product and get to know it a bit better before judging it against your competitors.

15. Why did you choose our product rather than a competitor’s?

Here, you ask for information on the things that differentiate your product from your competition. You want to know what tipped the balance in your favor.

It’s not only important to know what can be improved, but also what is noticed by your customers as good and valuable. You want to take this into account while considering any changes or improvements in the strategy of your product.

16. Which other options did you consider before choosing our product?

You may think you don’t need this customer feedback question to know what is your competition. The truth is, it’s good to know exactly what are the actual products your customers believe are your competition.

Sometimes they take into account companies that you would never take into consideration.

It is especially useful to know if they happened to compare you with a totally different type of product. Then it is worth a while to check if your communication with the potential and current customers creates a clear image of your product that is coherent with your own vision.

Besides, the odds will be in your favor if you use the feedback to constantly improve what you provide your customers with and make sure that you are a better option than your competitors.

Feedback On The General Experience With The Company Survey Questions

17. On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?

This simple customer feedback question (followed by the question ‘Why?’) changed the way marketers see customer satisfaction. Net Promoter Score®, otherwise called NPS, introduced hard data to the world of quantitative data and assumptions.

Measuring and improving your NPS should be the first step in improving customer satisfaction.

‍Hint: The standard for NPS is to research it using email surveys. However, if you run a news website or other type of business where you don’t really have customers, NPS can also be effectively used. Just run the survey on a website using targeted website surveys.

Target either returning users or use the more elaborate technique based on viewed URLs or cookies.

18. How likely are you to buy again from us?

Why bother researching the intent of repeat purchase when you can see in Google Analytics how many people actually bought something again? However, GA won’t help you if you’re just starting a business or sell durable goods.

Think about cars or furniture. People don’t buy them once a month. So, if you want to see how many customers will come back, you need to wait as long as several years to get the data. But you can capture intent sooner. Just ask your customers.

‍Hint: Send such client satisfaction surveys to your customers on a regular basis, e.g. once a year – depends on your industry and Customer Lifecycle. The best idea would be to observe the medium frequency your customers are making their purchases.

Observe trends and find out what are the reasons for increasing or decreasing the intent of buying again. Plus, you can then check how answers translate into actual acquisition – it will allow you to build a model of repeat purchases.

It will just require integrating your survey tool with Google Analytics or a similar tool you’re using. Learn more about this in the article on measuring customer satisfaction.

19. What would you say to someone who asked about us?

You should not be fishing for compliments with this customer survey question. What you can measure here is the customer’s general perception of your product and your brand. It will help you to check if what you consider your company to be is really what your customers truly see.

It will help you specify the image you want your company to have and implement actions that will allow you to achieve it.

20. What else would you like us to know?

This is a truly universal customer feedback question. No matter what is the subject of your survey, it is always valuable to ask if your customers have anything else to say.

It can give you additional insights, sometimes on issues that you would not expect. This, in turn, allows you to much quicker take necessary actions.

‍Hint: You can either send this customer satisfaction question in a targeted website survey (e.g. after the website visitors respond to your questions regarding the pricing while on the pricing page), in-message surveys via email (either with the follow-up surveys after the purchase or providing the customer support) or in your exit/return intent surveys (it can give you the actual answer why they decided to churn or return the product).

‍Recommended reading: If you are working in marketing, spend another minute to read Top 10 Marketing Surveys and Marketing Survey Questions.

Why are customer satisfaction surveys important?

Customer satisfaction surveys are essential because you can check if providing the best customer service or product checks out with reality. You can keep a high level of customer satisfaction that can be a strong predictor of customer retention, loyalty, and product repurchase by quickly responding to negative experiences.

Satisfied customers are more likely to purchase again and recommend the shop to their friends and coworkers. A loyal customer is worth even up to 10 times more than their first order.

Check out our infographic on the importance of customer satisfaction for more statistics that prove you can’t ignore measuring your clients’ happiness!

How long should a customer satisfaction survey be?

Customer satisfaction surveys should be as short as possible – no one wants to spend 30 minutes answering questions. People are busy, your customers/leads included. Surveys with 1-3 questions have the highest average completion rate (83.34%).

Think hard about what you want to achieve with your survey or what information you want to get. The more questions your questionnaire includes, the longer it takes to fill it in, the lesser the chance your respondent will complete it – especially if it’s a mobile-app survey since mobile users tend to have shorter attention spans.

‍FURTHER READING:

When should you send a survey to your customers?

This way, your customers’ experience will be fresh enough, and you’ll be able to make sure you’re offering a perfect experience or quickly make amends.On the other hand, you want to measure customer experience with your product or services constantly, so we suggest you set up customer satisfaction surveys in a regular time (daily, weekly or monthly). Just don’t be too offensive to your customers. Ready-to-use FREE survey templates

Ready-to-use FREE survey templates

How BRANDS use surveys to get more value

1. Droplr

Droplr used surveys to determine what their users thought about the app and learn why some of their users remain inactive.

The NPS survey allowed Droplr to identify promoters and detractors and target each group with a different Intercom campaign.

Promoters as a group of delighted users were invited to write a product review. With this approach, Droplr managed to increase the number of reviews 16 times!

Droplr also started to survey inactive users by asking, “Did you have any problems after signing up on Droplr?”. They quickly discovered that some of the users got lost in the product, their onboarding wasn’t smooth, while for others, it was difficult to understand the product value.

Thanks to surveys, Droplr started to better educate its users with guides, tips, and case studies. Read the complete Droplr case study.

2. Looka

Looka surveyed its customers to find out why they failed to finalize a logo purchase.

Respondents had 5 options to select from:

Looka learned that many customers who didn’t purchase their logo package found it too expensive. This had led them to develop a new pricing package that was geography dependent.

Pricing changes allowed Looka to increase its ROI by 2400%. Read the complete Looka case study.

3. Weex

Weex used surveys to identify churn reasons. They sent out an email survey to their churned customers saying: “We’ve noticed you’ve recently ported out. Can you tell us what was the reason?” (In telecommunication, the term “port-out” means to switch between mobile operators).

As soon as they discovered the 2 main reasons for churn – inadequate network coverage (which was beyond their control) and a lack of understanding of the product offering, they could address the issue.

Weex changed its product communication and presented it more transparently. Read the complete Weex case study.

Looking for more inspirations? There are a lot more customer stories to explore!

Final thoughts

Asking the right question is the key to researching customer satisfaction. Of course, you can ask questions like ‘How satisfied are you?’ but the answers won’t provide you with very detailed and substantive conclusions.

It’s always better to ask more specific questions. The answers will clearly show you what works well and which areas of your activity need improvements and how urgent they are.While creating a survey, you can also include questions not directly related to customer satisfaction but important to you.

‍For example: Ask how customers found out about you, what are their characteristics (roles, parental status, etc. – anything that will help you tailor services to their needs), or whether they used any similar products before.

The choice depends on what exactly you want to research and your target audience.

You can learn how to build your ideal customer audience in order to better tailor your services or products with customer segmentation guide.

Often it’s better to create and send 1 survey with 6-8 questions than to create one survey with 5 questions to research customer satisfaction and later send another short survey to research something else.

‍The Survicate Team wishes you Happy Surveying 💪

8 Ways You Can Meet Customer Expectations and Close the Gap

Setting clear goals is an essential part of managing a successful company. But while your expectations for your team might shape their individual roles and daily workflows, they’re ultimately not the most important expectations your employees should be working to meet.

That’s because when it comes down to it, your success relies on how satisfied your customers are with the products and services you provide. But many companies seem to think that their audiences’ expectations will fall in line with whatever it is that they offer. That’s rarely ever the case.

Instead, you need to take the time to understand what your customers really want and adjust your products, services, and customer support accordingly. That’s why in this post, we’ll cover eight strategies you can use to learn more about your customers’ expectations, and close the gap between their goals and your own.

1. Get to Know Your Audience

The first step in meeting customer expectations is simply establishing a clear picture of who, exactly, your audience is. And this requires going beyond basic demographic information like age, gender, and location.

Of course, these details can be beneficial for developing marketing personas. But in order to really understand your customers, you need to dig deeper and learn about their needs and interests, as well as the factors that go into their buying decisions.

And your best resource for finding this information is your existing customer base. Ask your customers what led them to seek out your product, and why they chose it over other options on the market. Then, use their answers to develop a stronger understanding of what your audience is looking for when they research your company and make sure that you’re providing exactly that.

2. Make Sure You’re Reaching the Right Buyers

Most companies launch their products and services with a clear idea of who their ideal buyers are. But in many cases, those initial assumptions are wrong — or, at least, they’re not nearly specific enough. It’s important to recognize, then, that your ideal customers may not be who you think.

Fortunately, you can determine who they are by analyzing your existing customer base. What traits correlate with repeat purchases? Which segments tend to become long-term, loyal customers?

The answers to these questions will help you establish a more accurate picture of who you should be focusing on with your marketing and retention efforts.

For example, let’s say you’re an accounting software company and your target audience is business owners. After studying your customer base, you notice that customers who work at mid-sized businesses are more likely to upgrade to your premium plan and to stay with your product longer than their small business and enterprise-sized counterparts. This signals that you should shift your focus to these high-value customers, and make them a priority when making key business decisions.

3. Look for New Ways to Meet Customer Needs

Once you’ve identified who your most valuable audience is and what it is that they’re looking for, it should be your goal to continuously find new ways to better meet their needs. After all, you should never expect your audience to change their expectations to fit your product. Instead, you need to be willing to change your product to fit their expectations.

Sticking with the account software example, let’s say you’ve determined that your mid-size business customers’ main priorities are improving efficiency and saving time.

As you consider which new features to add to your product, you should keep your focus on these goals — not on what your competitors are doing, or on the kinds of additions your team thinks would be exciting to create.

When you keep the focus on what your customers actually want, you can be sure that they’ll welcome your product improvements instead of viewing them as unnecessary bells and whistles.

4. Set Clear Standards for Your Support Team

As the team that interacts with your customers most often, your support team has a major impact on whether or not your company meets customer expectations.

This means that hiring and training an excellent team of agents is one of the most important investments you can make in your brand. And the best way to ensure that your agents provide the level of service your customers deserve is by setting clear standards.

First, you’ll want to set goals for key support metrics like first response time, average resolution time, and first call resolution rate. These are the easiest metrics to monitor and measure, and they can help you establish concrete benchmarks for your team.

Then, create guidelines for responding to specific inquiries. Write a list of the most common questions and issues you hear from customers, and establish appropriate responses for each. This way, you can provide consistent customer support experience for each of your customers, and be confident that their interactions are top-notch every time.

5. Be as Transparent as Possible

One of the most important factors in whether you’re able to meet customer expectations is whether you take the time to help them set accurate expectations in the first place.

Some companies make it their sole focus at the beginning of each customer’s experience with their brand to generate a sale. And while the reasoning behind this focus is clear, it’s not the best way to set your customers up for success.

Instead, make it your focus to fully educate prospective buyers on what you have to offer, what they can expect from your brand, and what policies they’ll be agreeing to if they become a customer. Be fully transparent about pricing information, return and cancellation policies, and the level of support they can expect from your team when they need assistance.

Sharing this information may not be as fun for your sales team as showing off new features and impressive case studies, but taking the time to do so up front prevents your customers from being caught off guard by policies they don’t like in the future. This way, they can make an informed decision about making a purchase — and have clear expectations for your brand before they spend a single cent.

6. Develop a Customer-centric Culture

Many companies put the responsibility of managing customer happiness solely on their support teams. But this shouldn’t be the case. That’s because when it comes down to it, each employee’s contributions have an impact on your customers’ experience with your products and services. And you can highlight this impact by developing a customer-centric culture.

Encourage your employees to keep your customers at the center of each decision they make, whether they’re a developer adding new features, or a marketer coming up with new campaigns.

This way, everything your company does will be done with the end user in mind — and will be much more likely to meet and exceed their expectations.

7. Collect Feedback Regularly

As you work towards meeting customer expectations, the best way to gauge whether your efforts are successful is to collect feedback on a regular basis.

Asking these questions will help you not only get a sense of the experience your brand provides, but can also help you learn which parts of the process you could be doing better so that you can make the kinds of impactful changes your customers want.

8. Scope Out Your Competitors

If a customer has worked with one of your competitors in the past, their expectations of your company will be largely based on that previous experience.

And the only way to know whether you’re living up to those expectations is to spend some time learning about your competitors. What are they doing well? What do their customers like about their brand? And what are they doing that you aren’t?

If there’s a particular part of the customer experience that a competitor is doing better than you, it’s in your best interest to focus your efforts on improving that part of the experience with your brand. Then, instead of worrying about living up to the expectations created by other companies, you can focus on making the kinds of improvements your competitors will struggle to keep up with.

Conclusion

Meeting customer expectations isn’t always easy. But it certainly isn’t impossible, either. Get to know your audience, make sure they’re the right audience for your brand, and learn as much as you possibly can about their needs and goals.

Then, set clear expectations from the start, and make sure that current and prospective customers always have the information they need to make informed decisions.

Finally, collect feedback on a regular basis to determine how well you’re meeting your customers’ expectations. Use the insight you gain to make necessary changes to your approach, and you’ll become much more successful in building a company your customers love.

A customer service software like Freshdesk can go a long way in helping you meet your customer expectations. Freshdesk enables you to segment your customer base, manage feedback, and deliver instant resolutions.